A water connection fee charged by a special district is a development fee not subject to the constraints of Proposition 218, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled. However, a "fire suppression" assessment levied by the same district is subject to Proposition 218 and required two-thirds voter approval.

The controversial formation an assessment district that includes territory outside the water district that will receive the money has been upheld by the First District Court of Appeal. The court rejected arguments that Solano County manipulated the formation and election processes to circumvent residents who objected to the county's plans.

Worried about water reliability and feeling neglected, Bay Area water agencies that get water from San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy system are taking the situation into their own hands. The agencies are working with state lawmakers on various approaches that would force San Francisco to repair and update the system, and would even let the agencies raise the capital improvement money themselves.

The Interior Department has announced plans to withdraw temporarily "critical habitat" designations for 19 different species of salmon and steelhead throughout the West. The March revelation came in the context of a federal judge's decision to order economic impact analyses of the critical habitat designations.

This article contains CP&DR's monthly digest of the latest and greatest land use stories happening in the Golden State.

Dawn Serpa is president of The Surland Companies, a private, 13-year-old residential and commercial developer that builds 100 to 200 houses per year. It is currently building Redbridge in Tracy, a 450-home project that mixes an array of housing sizes and styles in one subdivision, and plans to build Tracy's first mixed-use urban village. Unlike some developers, Serpa does not fear the "smart growth" movement. She even complains that many local regulations prevent traditional neighborhood developments. CP&

Remember the "see-through" office building phenomenon that hit Houston during the mid 1980s and then Los Angeles in the early 1990s? Well, it's back. This time, it is the Bay Area that is afflicted with empty office buildings.

A public agency's proposed water treatment plant is subject to local zoning and building ordinances, the Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled. The court held that the Government Code exemption to local zoning for "facilities for the production, generation, storage or transmission of water" did not extend to a water treatment plant.

In its first takings case decision in three years, the state Supreme Court has upheld a San Francisco law that regulates the conversion of residential hotel rooms to tourist use. In a 4-3 decision based largely on its 1996 Ehrlich decision, the court ruled that exactions that are part of a broad plan deserve deferential review, while ad hoc exactions are subject to much closer court scrutiny.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first voter-approved growth control initiative in California. In 1972, voters in the City of Petaluma — in Sonoma County, 40 miles north San Francisco — capped approval of new homes at 500 units per year, or about half the previous year's total. Growth has remained a hot issue in Petaluma, but today it lacks the urgency it had during the 1970s.

This article contains CP&DR's complete listing of land use related election returns for the March 2002 election.

Quietly, while no one seemed to be paying much attention, the Central Valley has become one of the smoggiest places in the nation. Kern, Fresno and Tulare counties rank third, fourth and fifth among those counties that exceeded federal ozone standards the most days from 1997 to 1999, according to the American Lung Association's 2001 State of the Air report.

California's Revenue and Taxation Code contains provisions for all sorts of tax credits, most of them intended to encourage business or personal investment in activities deemed to have social value — creating jobs, saving energy, reducing waste, supporting charitable works.

Here is California Planning & Development Report's patent pending digest of this month's hottest news briefs about planning and development in the Golden State.